Every time Catrina Jeffrey sees someone wearing a crucifix around their neck it makes her shudder.

For the 36-year-old mum-of-three, the emblem isn’t a religious symbol or fashion accessory.

It is a reminder of the abuse she suffered at the hands of an evil cult leader.

Catrina was only a schoolgirl when she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle Elaine and Colin Batley.

She thought she had finally found the loving family that she had always longed for.

But it turned out that her uncle was a monster who raped and sexually abused children as young as six.

As the leader of a satanic cult, he would repeatedly invite men over to his house to have sex with Catrina and told her he would kill her if she breathed a word about it to anyone.

“I was an innocent schoolgirl and that man stole my life,” Catrina says.

“He raped and abused me in unimaginably horrific ways, using me as a sex toy for his cult members. I was trapped. There was no escape.”

Between the ages of 15 and 23, Catrina was forced to have sex with up to 12 men a month.

She was subjected to a “cult” marriage and had three children. She has no idea who the father of her eldest child is.

Catrina only managed to escape the cult at the age of 24, later bravely giving evidence against her uncle in court.

Batley was jailed for 22 years for his crimes last year, but even now Catrina cannot forget what he put her through.

“Sometimes little things remind me of him and all of a sudden I am transported back to that awful time in my life,” she says. “It never really goes away.”

Catrina’s nightmare began when she was just two years old and her stepfather, Vincent Barden, began sexually abusing her.

It carried on until she was 12, but Catrina was too scared to tell her mum.

She couldn’t help showing her dislike of Barden and was eventually sent to live with her aunt Elaine and uncle Colin, who became her legal guardians. They appeared normal at first.

“I felt so grateful when they took me in,” Catrina says.

“They seemed so kind and loving – a real family, something I had never had.

"My uncle would take me ice-skating and we would sometimes go for picnics and play board games. I felt happy in those first weeks.”

Little did Catrina know that her new-found happiness was about to come to an abrupt end.

Jailed: Colin Batley was given 22 years (Image: Wales News)

“One night about six weeks after I had moved in, Uncle Colin ordered everyone to bed except me,” she recalls.

“He then came into the living room and sat next to me and began talking about things like respect and rules.

"Then he blurted out, ‘I’m a member of a cult. You either join or you’ll have to leave this house’.”

Desperate not to lose her seemingly perfect home life, Catrina agreed.

“I didn’t even really know what a cult was,” she says.

“But I told myself that it couldn’t be worse than going back to live with my stepdad.”

A few days later, Catrina was told by Batley that she would need to be initiated into the cult.

“I was soon made to understand what the ‘initiation’ meant,” she says.

“Uncle Colin raped me in the living room while his wife and children slept upstairs.”

Catrina thought about confiding in her aunt but the day after the attack she realised Elaine knew – and didn’t mind.

After raping her, Batley presented Catrina with an upside down crucifix on a string rope.

“He told me it represented my life, and that if I snapped the cross I’d die,” she says.

“I realised he wasn’t just Uncle Colin any more. He was a leader of a cult and I had to obey his every command.”

A few days later, Catrina was abused by both her aunt and uncle.

After that strangers visited the house every Sunday for cult meetings and rituals.

They would dress in purple silk robes and read from The Book of The Law, written by occultist Aleister Crowley, known as “The Great Beast”.

“They would stand before an altar covered with burning candles and a tarantula in a tank and then Auntie Elaine would preach from the book chanting things like, ‘Let all chaste women be despised’. It was really bizarre.”

On Halloween, their holiest day, Catrina was given a black tunic to wear. Worshippers swayed as Batley, the high priest, held court.

“After my initiation, the abuse got worse,” Catrina says.

“I was forced to have sex with strangers aged between 30 and 50, up to five nights a week.

“Some of them were married, some were loners, but every one of them made me feel physically sick.

"Uncle Colin would always watch as they raped me. Sometimes, he and aunt Elaine would join in.

“If I dared protest, Uncle Colin would remind me of the consequences. Once he put a shoelace around my neck as a warning and waved a gun at me.”

Evil: His wife Elaine took part in the abuse too (Image: Wales News)

Catrina wasn’t allowed to have much contact with the outside world and began feeling more and more isolated.

Then, just after her 16th birthday, a man called Matthew* turned up at the house and Batley told her he was going to be her partner.

“I was forced to go upstairs and have sex with him and we were told we would have to live as husband and wife,” she says.

“My uncle convinced me that his cult was huge and that I was being watched at all times, so even when I popped out to the shop I didn’t dare tell anyone or even think about escaping.

"Even when I got a day job at a factory I was too scared to tell any of my colleagues because I had been brainwashed into thinking that he had spies everywhere.”

Catrina was forced to give 25% of everything she earned to Batley as a “gift” to the cult.

Months passed and new members joined. The Batleys moved from London to Kidwelly, west Wales, and Catrina and Matthew went with them.

“I was too terrified to run away,” Catrina explains. “There was always the fear that I’d be found and killed.”

At the age of 21, Catrina gave birth to a son, Nathan*, weighing 6lb 4oz.

“Colin was still forcing me to have sex with him so I didn’t know if it was his baby or Matthew’s,” she says.

“But he was thrilled and told me this child was a cult baby.” Just over a year later, Catrina became pregnant again and had her second son, Jake*.

It was only after his birth that she discovered through another cult member that Batley had abused a child who was six years old.

“It was the information and power I needed to escape,” she says.

“I told him I knew everything and saw something in his eyes I had never seen before – fear. He told me I was free to leave the cult, but warned me that if I told anyone about it, I’d be killed.”

Catrina, then 24, fled and Matthew followed. She gave birth to a third child, Daniel*, soon after.

Despite the fact that none of her children had been conceived out of love, Catrina never regretted having them.

“They were my life and having them was the only thing that kept me going,” she says.

“I loved my children so much and didn’t want them to experience the kind of life I’d had.

"But I was still terrified I was being watched and Matthew was incredibly abusive and controlling. I knew I had to escape him too for my kids’ sake.”

Prison: House of horror in Kidwelly, Wales (Image: Wales News)

Four months after Daniel was born, Catrina ran away to a women’s refuge.

She says: “It was the hardest and bravest decision I ever made.

"When I got to the refuge I realised I was free for the first time in my life. No one could hurt me any more.”

Slowly Catrina began rebuilding her life. Then, aged 32, she met Mark*, 34, who was to become her proper husband.

Finally, she was happy. But in March 2010, she heard through a friend that her aunt and uncle had been arrested.

“I was told that another victim of the cult had gone to the police and told them everything,” she says.

“I knew what I had to do. I picked up the phone and called the police and made a statement.”

Thanks to the evidence that Catrina gave, Batley, 48, and his wife were brought to justice in March last year at Swansea crown court.

Batley was convicted of 35 sex offences against children and adults, including rape, buggery, sexual assault and forcing prostitution, and was jailed for 22 years.

Elaine, 47, was found guilty of five counts, including sexual activity and indecency towards children and was sentenced to eight years in jail.

Judge Thomas told evil Batley: “You took cruel delight in initiating children into sex but their lives have been blighted forever.”

Catrina also told the police what her stepfather, Vincent Barden, 70, had done to her.

Barden admitted two counts of indecent assault and was given three years in jail.

“For the first time ever I felt liberated,” says Catrina. “I am so glad those evil people are in jail for what they did to me.

“Now it is time for me to start living my life and to stop being afraid.”